I received a nice email from Noah Pohl last week. Noah, who works as an assistant in Hwood, has this background on a short film he shot called “Expiration Date”:

Here’s the facts: I made EXPIRATION DATE for twenty dollars. I borrowed a camera, shot it in twelve hours, and cut it on my laptop over three weeks. It was two actors, myself, a camera and shotgun mike. Basically, it’s Cassavettes-style filmmaking, with a nod to mumblecore. Why did I make this movie? I wanted to do something that felt really real to me. It was part inspiration, part frustration with a slew of films that didn’t emotionally resonate with me (which I think is the curse of death for any film). This short is embarrassingly personal — but in hindsight, I’m glad it is. Paring it down to one sentence, Expiration Date is my tribute to “the one-night-stand” and everything that goes with it. I hope you enjoy it.

Over the last year, the film was picked to be on a show called The Best Short Films in the World. It was very gratifying, since about fifty people watched it when I first made it. After the show, it went up to 2,000 people. Lastly, it made the semi-finals in the 2009 NextTV Entertainment Contest, when I pitched it as a TV series spin-off.

All in all, not a bad investment on my initial $20.

Next time out, I’m thinking of being more ambitious and raising the budget to $22.

Here it is — the short movie “Expiration Date”:

You can go here for the Vimeo link.

If you have any comments or questions for Noah, post them here.

Also if you have a full-length movie or short film that you wrote, directed, produced and/or acted in, and would like me to promote it on GITS, post background info and link here, or email me:

scottdistillery@gmail.com